Arne Slot continued his phenomenal start as Liverpool manager by following up a Premier League win over Brighton last weekend with a 4-0 Champions League drubbing of Bundesliga champions Bayer Leverkusen.
Luis Diaz scored a second half hat-trick to take the Reds to the top of the league table with four wins from four, while Xabi Alonso’s Leverkusen fell to a first Champions League loss of the campaign.
Slot has led Liverpool to 14 victories already in all competitions, losing just one game, to Nottingham Forest and drawing one with Arsenal. It is an extraordinary start to the Dutchman’s career at Anfield, and Liverpool fans must be rubbing their eyes this morning as their side sits proudly top of their domestic and European Leagues.
Elsewhere, there were more stunning outcomes on Tuesday night, as the two tournament favourites both fell to shock defeats, with Manchester City taking a walloping from Sporting Lisbon, while Real Madrid lost at home to AC Milan.
You can’t underestimate the magnitude of Slot’s start. The latest SBOTOP odds make the Reds the joint favourites to win the Premier League, priced at 2.50 alongside Manchester City. And they’ll take some beating in the Champions League too, as former Liverpool favourite Alonso found out.
Die Werkself certainly didn’t make it easy for their hosts, and they were level with over 60 minutes on the clock, but the Reds hit them with a quick-fire double, as they did to beat the Seagulls on Saturday.
Diaz opened the scoring with a delightful dink, and then Cody Gakpo beat the offside trap to score his second goal in two games.
Diaz added two more late goals to make it another magical European night under the floodlights at Anfield, and teams in England and on the continent have good reason to fear Slot’s Reds.
Amorin makes Red Devils fans smile already
Before he has even started his reign as Manchester United manager, Ruben Amorim has become a legend at Old Trafford after his Sporting Lisbon side thumped Manchester City 4-1.
The stunning result doomed the Sky Blues to a third consecutive defeat in all competitions, and Pep Guardiola’s side dropped down the Champions League table, though still comfortable on seven points from four games.
There was a hat-trick hero in Lisbon too as former Coventry City striker Viktor Gyokeres scored two penalties as part of his three huge goals on a historic night.
Sporting maintained their unbeaten start to the season and moved up to second in the Champions League table, while City followed up a Carabao Cup loss to Tottenham Hotspur and a league defeat to Bournemouth with another disappointing performance.
It started pretty well for the Sky Blues, as Phil Foden put the visitors ahead on four minutes and they could easily have gone into the half time 3-0 up, but Gyokores levelled before the break.
And after halftime, Sporting became unplayable, as the Swede scored two spot-kicks and Maximilian Araujo also hit the target.
Guardiola was philosophical after the match, saying his side will play Amorim twice in the Premier League, and Sky Blues fans will be hungry for revenge. But the City boss will be frustrated after watching his team collapse, and he even had to witness Erling Haaland miss a second half penalty.
The absence of Ballon d’Or winner Rodri, out for the campaign with an ACL injury, has weakened the Sky Blues, but the Champions League 2024 betting odds still reckon City are the team to beat alongside Carlo Ancelotti’s Real Madrid.
But, in other Champions League 2024 news, it was a bad night too for Los Blancos as they fell to a damaging 3-1 defeat at home to AC Milan.
I Rossoneri put on a brilliant show at the Santiago Bernabeu to shock the Spaniards and record a second Champions League win after losing their first two. Malick Thiaw, Alvaro Morata, and Tijjani Reijnders were all on target, while Real Madrid’s only success came from a Vinicius Junior spot-kick.
After losing to Liverpool and Leverkusen, Milan got off the mark against Club Brugge and now move up to six points alongside Los Blancos, who have beaten Borussia Dortmund and VfB Stuttgart while falling to a shock defeat to French side Lille.
Ancelotti’s side took a 4-0 whacking in El Clasico last week, and they started badly again on Tuesday night as Thiaw headed home a cross from Christian Pulisic. Vinicius won and converted a penalty to make it 1-1 before Morata was first to react to a rebound to restore the Italian’s first-half lead.
The lively Rafael Leao left Eder Militao standing in his wake and found Reijnders with a clever pull back, and Milan’s impressive win was in the bag.
Disclaimer: Odds are correct at time of publish.
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